Big report could lead to big trouble for British military

A devastating 250-page dossier has been presented to the International Criminal Court, detailing allegations of beatings, electrocution, mock executions, and sexual assault; and could result in some of Britain's leading defence figures facing prosecution for "systematic" war crimes. General Sir Peter Wall, the head of the British Army; former defence secretary Geoff Hoon; and former defence minister Adam Ingram are among those named in the report, entitled "The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008". The damning dossier draws on cases of more than 400 Iraqis, representing "thousands of allegations of mistreatment amounting to war crimes of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment". They range from "hooding" prisoners to burning, electric shocks, threats to kill, and "cultural and religious humiliation". Other forms of alleged abuse include sexual assault, mock executions, and threats of rape, death, and torture. And because of this, senior UK military and political figures could end up in the dock as 400 victims denounce this systemic use of torture and cruelty. The formal complaint to the ICC, lodged yesterday, is the cumulation of several years' work by Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). It calls for an investigation into the alleged war crimes, under Article 15 of the Rome Statute. The dossier is the most detailed ever submitted to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor on war crimes allegedly committed by British forces in Iraq. The court has already acknowledged that there was little doubt that war crimes were committed, with one prisoner's experience summed up like so: "The soldier put his boot on my chest and pulled my trousers down.... I was shouting and was curled up against the wall. Then the soldier pulled me by my legs away from the wall. He turned me over on my stomach. He started rubbing his penis on my back, while the other soldiers watched. Then I felt him ejaculate on my back. I was trying to move away but another soldier came and pressed his foot on my legs." That is just wrong. Why would soldiers, the very people who are supposed to be the heroes in all this, do that? This sort of rubbish is totally unnecessary, and so is this: Nikita Guryanov, a high-school student in Moscow, has been dubbed a “propagandist”. But what is the hateful doctrine that he is spreading? He summed it up best in his YouTube show: “No matter who you are – gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender – you are a human being,” he said. “You are an individual. You are who you are. You should not be scared. You should not be shy.” In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the broadcast of this teen’s show is effectively a crime. The country’s controversial “homosexual propaganda” legislation, banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” among minors, is broad. It means that among other things, teachers cannot tell their students that gay and straight relationships are equal, parents cannot tell their children being LGBT is normal, and people cannot distribute pamphlets promoting gay rights.